Last Stop on the HAUNTED Blog Tour

Today I'm hanging out at Once Upon a Twilight for an author interview.

So stop on by!

And in a separate post, I have a huge surprise today!

(Okay, maybe it's not that surprising. But it's pretty and very exciting. You will love it. I promise.) So check it. Or possibly you already have!

My huge thanks to Katie at Mundie Moms for organizing the HAUNTED Blog Tour and to all the bloggers who hosted stops for the past couple weeks.

And of course to the team at Sourcebooks Fire - my editor, Leah Hultenschmidt, production team Kelly Barrales Saylor and Kristin Zelazko and intrepid publicity gurus Derry Wilkens and Kay Mitchell. They support me in everything I do and the DREAMING ANASTASIA series who not exist without them.

If you enjoyed this tour, make sure to tweet that to all these fine folks!! Just add @sourcebooksfire to tour tweets and they'll all know!

Monday Musings

Today on the last leg of the HAUNTED BlOG TOUR, I'm visiting Page Turners with a guest post, talking about taking existing lore and turning into my own for the DREAMING ANASTASIA series.

This is something I love to talk about!

The DREAMING series uses not only the historical element of the Romanovs but also a blend of a number of Russian/slavic fairy tales and some Slavic folk art!

I'll be talking about these more during these coming months leading to the August release of ANASTASIA FOREVER. But for now, here are the elements that I made my own in this series and the order in which they've been introduced:

DREAMING ANASTASIA

• Baba Yaga the witch
• Russian lacquer boxes
• Russian matryoshka dolls

HAUNTED

• all of the above plus
• rusalki (malevolent slavic mermaids)

ANASTASIA FOREVER

• all of the above plus
• Koschei the Deathless, a very ancient Slavic story about a man who cannot be killed. It uses the soul jar trope, which I'll be talking about more soon. (Koschei, by the way, is actually hinted at in the very end of HAUNTED!)
• Faberge eggs

More soon. For now, stop by Page Turners and check out today's guest post.

Up tomorrow, another HAUNTED excerpt at Portrait of a Book. Wednesday, an interview at Once Upon a Twilight!

And also coming Wednesday, a super special surprise!!

Five for Friday

The HAUNTED Blog Tour heads to Mundie Moms today for an interview.

Tomorrow we'll be stopping by Girls in the Stacks for a review. Please stop by!

And don't forget the giveaway of two signed copies -- one HAUNTED and one DREAMING ANASTASIA over at Cari's Book Blog!

Thank you to everybody who has been part of this tour, to the Sourcebooks team that tweets and links, and to the wonderfulness of the authors, readers, bloggers who I talk to every day, whether in person or on line. My career has blossomed because of your generosity and support.

And now for the Friday Five!

1. Yes, I admit it. My world became a better place this week because Bethenny Ever After started up again. Yup. Bethenny, Jason, Brin, Julie, Cookie... my favorite not so guilty Bravo pleasure. B's honesty may be calculated, but I dig it.

2. Lyla the wonder dog is possibly learning to settle down. Possibly. Unless there's a squirrel. Or a cat. Or a garbage truck. Or the new washing machine. Or people.

3. It is almost time for the Houston Livestock and Rodeo. Each year we eat one really bad for you fried food that we purchase on the midway at a booth called Fried What? A few years ago, I consumed fried oreos, which I blogged about here. Last year it was fried ice-cream. This year I'm thinking twinkie, but I'll let you know.

4. I think I can let you see the cover of ANASTASIA FOREVER next week. I've actually started to see it here and there, but there may be a few tweaks still...

5. I have the best agent in the universe. Her name is Jen Rofe. And yesterday when I needed it, she made me watch this:

Have You Read HAUNTED Blog Tour begins Today!

Just back from Austin SCBWI conference, which I'll post about later in the week because today is day one of the HAUNTED blog tour, hosted by the fabulous Mundie Moms, with stops at many amazing Texas blogger sites!

ANASTASIA FOREVER is quickly approaching in August, so as I wrote on Friday, Katie of Mundie Moms and I decided it was time to put everyone back into the world of DREAMING ANASTASIA (book 1) and HAUNTED (book 2)

Of course you should check out the HAUNTED book trailer here on this blog.
Remind yourself how sexy awesome blue-eyed Ethan is!
And how brave and wonderful Anne is!
And get back into the spooky, sexy world of DREAMING ANASTASIA again... or for the first time. Baba Yaga. The rusalka. Tragic Anastasia Romanov. A star-crossed romance of epic proportions.

Or as I like to say, History doesn't tell us everything....

The tour begins today at Cari's Book Blog with an interview. We're dishing about HAUNTED and other good stuff.

Click on over the Mundie Mums for the full week's fun.

Tomorrow they'll be reviewing HAUNTED on stop 2!

THANK YOU!! to all the amazing Texas book bloggers who continue to support me and my books! You are all made of many pieces of awesome!

HAUNTED Blog Tour coming and other Good News

So things are heating up on the ANASTASIA FOREVER front. I have an exact release date-- 8/01/12!! ARC's are headed to production. The cover is being finalized. I've seen it now and it is TO DIE FOR!! You are all going to fall in big huge, slobbery love over this sexy, spooky cover. I want to show it to you right now. But, Editor Leah says I can't quite do that. And she's the boss. So hang in there. Soon, my pretties. Very soon.

Til then, something even more fantabulous!!

Katie of Mundie Moms and I and some of those fabulous Texas book bloggers that I've been raving about have partnered for a "Have You Read HAUNTED?" Blog Tour starting Monday 2/20. Because what better time to make sure everyone has read book 2 than when book 3 is almost here?

So just head on over to the Mundie Mom's website for the full deets.

And check out the HAUNTED book trailer that's right here on this blog.

Remind yourself how sexy awesome blue-eyed Ethan is!

And how brave and wonderful Anne is!

And get back into the spooky, sexy world of DREAMING ANASTASIA again... or for the first time. Baba Yaga. The rusalka. Tragic Anastasia Romanov. A star-crossed romance of epic proportions.

We start on Monday 2/20 at Cari's Book Blog with an interview with me!

Tuesday, 2/21 we'll head over to Mundie Moms for a review.

And onward from there.

I'll keep you posted each day.

And I'm so excited.

DREAMING ANASTASIA. HAUNTED. ANASTASIA FOREVER.

History never tells you everything....